Method and testing instrument for assessing skills of an individual

ABSTRACT

A method for assessing the readiness skills of a child between the ages of two and six years is disclosed. To assess the child&#39;s skills, a set of specially designed cards is provided. Each card displays one or more predetermined symbols. The cards are displayed to the child according to a predefined protocol. As the cards are displayed, a testing specialist asks the child questions about each card and records the child&#39;s responses. The child&#39;s responses are then scored to assess his or her skill level. The cards are organized into color-coded subsets. Each subset can be used to test a child&#39;s mastery of a certain task. In addition, the cards can be asymmetrically-shaped to facilitate sorting and presentation. The unique design of the cards permits the testing specialist to quickly screen young children with possible learning disabilities.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to methods of testingindividuals, and in particular, to an improved method for quicklyassessing individual skill levels using a set of specially designedcards.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Skill testing involves presenting one or more tasks to an individual andthen assessing his/her ability to perform those tasks. Skills that arefrequently tested include academic skills, such as reading, writing, andmathematics, as well as mental and physical skills, such asmemorization, manual dexterity, and the like. Skill tests are oftenadministered to identify children that may be experiencing learningproblems. Typically, a child experiencing problems is identified at anearly age by parents or teachers. The child is then referred to atesting specialist, such as a child psychologist or special educationteacher, who administers a screening test to ascertain the child'smastery of certain pre-academic/academic skills, collectively known asreadiness skills. Readiness skills are generally those skills that achild should learn during their first few years in school to insure ahealthy educational environment. Readiness skills include, but are notlimited to, the ability to recognize and name letters, numbers andshapes, to correctly perform simple comparisons, and in some cases, toform simple words.

Conventional techniques for testing readiness skills include interactiveevaluation sessions, where a testing specialist orally presents a seriesof tasks to the child. In performing readiness skills tests, it isimportant that the child is not distracted or confused by the format ofthe test. The purpose of the test is to ascertain the child's mastery ofcertain basic concepts and knowledge. Accordingly, interactive testingsessions offer significant advantage over other forms of testing, suchas standardized written examinations, because they permit the examinerto adjust the examination to the examinee, thus resulting in a moreaccurate assessment.

Interactive evaluation sessions frequently involve the use of testinginstruments for presenting information, such as chalk boards, easels,pencil-and-paper, or the like.

However, conventional testing instruments present serious limitationswhen attempting to assess the readiness skills of young children. Forexample, presenting test information on a chalkboard or easel is notonly awkward, but is often confusing and intimidating for some children.Furthermore, chalkboards and easels restrict the child's ability tohandle and manipulate the test instrument. Involvement of the child withtest instruments is important because it permits the examiner to observethe child's reaction and response to test stimuli. Using a simplepencil-and-paper approach to present information can be time-consuming.Moreover, it may not be appropriate for younger children who may not beable to perform using a written format. Accordingly, current techniquesfor assessing readiness skills are time-consuming and limited whenapplied to young children.

Therefore, there is a need for an improved method and testing instrumentfor evaluating pre-academic skills in young children.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an advantage of the present invention to provide a method andtesting instrument for quickly screening children to determine whetherthey are at risk for learning difficulties. A further advantage of theinvention is that the testing instrument permits an examiner toadaptively present information to young children in an interactivemanner that is appropriate for their age-level.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method is providedfor assessing the readiness skills of a child. The child can be betweenthe ages of three and six years. To assess the child's skills, a set ofspecially designed cards is provided. Each card displays one or morepredetermined symbols. The cards are displayed to the child according toa pre-defined protocol. As the cards are displayed, a testing specialistasks the child questions about each card and records the child'sresponses. The child's responses are then scored to assess his/her skilllevel.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a testing kit caninclude a set of specially designed cards, provided as a testinginstrument. The front side of each card displays a letter or number. Inaddition, the cards are organized into color-coded subsets, whichgreatly improves the convenience with which the cards may be used. Eachsubset designates a particular task(s) to be tested. A first subsetdisplays a first group of letters on the front side. At least one of thecards in the first subset displays on its backside a letter from thefirst group. A second subset of cards displays a second group of letterson the front side, while at least one card of the second subset displaysa word on its backside. The word is composed of letters from the secondgroup. A third subset of cards displays various shapes on the backside,and a fourth subset displays columns having various lengths on thebacksides. A fifth subset of cards displays a repeated symbol on thebacksides. The repeated symbol can appear in various quantities, colors,shapes and sizes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is pointed out with particularity in the appended claims.However, other features of the invention will become more apparent, andthe invention will be best understood by referring to the followingspecification and accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary testing kit in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates examples of individual cards that can be included inthe set of cards shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of assessing readinessskills of a child in accordance with another embodiment to the presentinvention;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of performing variousones of the tests shown in FIG. 3 in accordance with a furtherembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates a subset of the cards of FIG. 1 being displayed forsimultaneous viewing; and

FIG. 6 illustrates a subset of cards displayed in an alternative mannerfor simultaneous viewing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENT

Turning now to the drawings, and in particular to FIG. 1, there isillustrated a testing kit 10 in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. The testing kit 10 includes a deck of speciallydesigned cards 12, a first set of expandable cards 14, a second set ofexpandable cards 16, and a booklet 18 containing a protocol foradministering the test.

The deck of cards 12 can include a plurality of separate cards, eachhaving one or more predetermined symbols printed thereon. The cards 12can include symbols on either side, and can be made of paper, cardboard,laminated cardboard, or any other material suitable for displayingprinted symbols. The symbols displayed by the cards 12 can includeletters, numbers, words, predefined shapes such as stars, hearts, or thelike, and geometric shapes such as squares, rectangles, circles,triangles, or the like.

In addition, the cards can be color-coded to permit them to be easilysorted. This feature is especially important because it allows anexaminer to quickly administer tests without overly distracting orboring the child while attempting to sort cards.

To further facilitate sorting, the cards 12 can beasymmetrically-shaped. The asymmetrical shape of the cards 12 is anadvantage that permits the cards to be easily collected into a singlestack, so that they maintain a common orientation, e.g., they are allright side up, front-side forward. In the example shown, theasymmetrical shape of the cards 12 is provided by a generallyrectangular card having a clipped upper corner 13 and an ear 15 shapedas a circular tab extending from the opposite upper corner. Like thecolor coding, the asymmetrical shape reduces the distraction and delaynormally associated with sorting.

Each card can display on its front side either a letter (A-Z) or anumber (0-9). To reduce the number of cards in the set and improve theirease of use, various symbols, such as letters, words and geometricshapes are displayed on the backsides of the cards 12.

The card set 12 can include 36 cards organized into a plurality ofsubsets, where each subset is indicated by a respective card color. Eachsubset can be used to test a child's mastery of one or more particulartasks.

In a particular embodiment of the invention, the card set 12 includesfive subsets. In this embodiment, a first subset having six red cardsmay be used to evaluate a child's ability to recognize letters in thealphabet. Each card in a first subset can display on its front side aletter from a predetermined group of letters. One or more letters fromthe group can be displayed on the back sides of individual cards in thesubset. To facilitate testing activities relying on simultaneousviewing, such as those depicted in FIGS. 5-6, the letters appearing onthe backsides can be inverted.

A second subset having nine yellow cards can be used to assess thechild's ability to visually discriminate letters. Each card in thesubset can display on its front a letter from a predetermined secondgroup of letters. To enhance the convenience of using the cards, thewords can be printed on the backs of respective ones of the cards. Thewords are composed of letters from the second group.

A third subset of cards comprising ten orange cards can be used toevaluate two different skills: (1) the child's knowledge of number factsand (2) the child's ability to recognize various shapes and colors. Thefront side of each card displays a particular digit (0-9), while theback side displays a geometric shape of a certain color.

A fourth subset comprising five green cards can be used to evaluateletter recognition skills, as well as comparison skills. The front sideof each card in the fourth group can display a respective letter, whilethe back side can display columns having various lengths. To evaluatecomparison skills, an examiner can ask questions about the columns.

A fifth subset of cards can include six grey cards, each displayingletters on the front side and repeated symbols on the backside. Therepeated symbol can appear in various numbers, sizes and colors on thebacks of the cards. The cards in the fifth subset can be used toevaluate both letter recognition skills and quantitative skills.

As will be discussed in greater detail below, the extendable sets ofcards 14-16 permit simultaneous viewing of shapes that are to be copiedby an examinee. Each expandable sets 14-16 can include three cards thatare laminated together using clear plastic to form the foldable sets asshown.

The booklet 18 contains a protocol which lists instructions foradministering the test. The protocol also includes a series of questionsto be asked by the examiner, as well as a section or score card forrecording the individual's answers to the questions. An example of thecontents of the booklet 18 is provided in Appendix A. Although theprotocol is shown in booklet form, it will be apparent that the protocolcan be provided in other equivalent forms, such as loose-leaf, unboundpapers, etc., without departing from the spirit and scope of theinvention.

Turning now to FIG. 2, there is illustrated some examples of theseparate cards that can be included in the card set 12. The exemplarycards 30-38 show some of the various symbols that can be displayed bythe deck of cards 12.

A first card 29 displays on its front-side 30a the letter "F", anddisplays on its back-side 30b the word "RED". The card 29 can be used toevaluate letter and word recognition skills, and can be included in theabove-described first or second subsets. Letter cards, such as card 29,can also be used to measure the ability to match letters. The ability tomatch things, such as letters, is called visual discrimination.

A second card 34 illustrates an example of a card that can be includedin the above-described third subset. The second card 34 displays ageometric shape on its backside. The shape shown is a circle; however,other shapes such as squares, rectangles, and triangles, or the like,can also be displayed on the backside of the number cards. The shapescan also appear in different colors. The front side of the card (notshown) typically displays a number. The backside of such a card can beused to test a child's ability to recognize shapes and colors, while thefront side can test the child's ability to recognize numbers.

A third exemplary card 36 displays columns consisting of symbols shapedas hearts. The columns vary in length and are used to perform simplecomparison tests, as will be discussed below. Any type of symbol can beused to depict a column, including a simple bar. Additionally, thecolumns can be also displayed horizontally instead of vertically. Thecard can also have a letter or number printed on its front side (notshown) so that it can be used to perform letter or number recognitiontests. Cards such as the third card 36 can be included in theabove-described fourth subset.

A fourth exemplary card 38 includes a plurality of repeated symbolsappearing on its backside in various sizes and colors. Although a staris shown as an example of the repeated symbol, any distinct shape can beused. Cards displaying repeated symbols are used to evaluate a child'sability to make comparisons. The fourth card 38 can also display aletter or number on its front side (not shown) for use in letter ornumber recognition tests. The fourth card 38 can be included in thefifth subset described earlier.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart diagram of a method 50 for assessingreadiness skills of a child in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. The protocol disclosed in the accompanying Appendixcan be used as a source of specific information for carrying out themethod 50.

In step 52, the testing specialist asks the child questions aboutpersonal data, such as a child's name, age, birth date, address,telephone, and the like. The child's answers are recorded and scoredaccording to the protocol. For example, the child receives points forcorrectly stating his given name and points for identifying the month,day and year he was born.

In step 54, the child's knowledge of number facts is assessed. The teststarts by asking the child to simply count from one and to continueuntil the testing specialist asks him/her to stop. The child is thenasked to write numbers sequentially starting at the number one.

If the child exhibits difficulty in performing these tasks, the cards 12can be used to further test the child's ability to recognize numbers.The procedure for performing this testing activity is illustrated by theflowchart 80 shown in FIG. 4. The procedure 80 is also used in otherphases of the evaluation of the child's readiness skills.

To administer the number recognition test, a subset of the cards 12 isused, such as the third subset described earlier. The cards in thesubset are sequentially presented in random order, one at a time, to thechild (step 82). Each card displays a particular number, for example, adigit between 0 and 9. As each card is displayed, the testing specialistasks the child to identify the particular number. This is an expressiveform of testing, i.e., a test which requires the child to say aresponse. The child's responses are recorded and scored according to theprotocol. The testing specialist then determines whether the childcorrectly identified a minimally acceptable number of symbols (step 84).This minimal number can be established by statistics gathered onchildren of similar age, responding to the same task. It is wellestablished that children at a specific age, collectively, should havemastery of certain pre-academic kills. Accordingly, statisticaldistributions of prior responses can provide reliable criteria forscreening children with possible learning problems. If the number ofcorrect responses does not satisfy a predetermined criteria, a remedialtesting activity is then performed with the cards (steps 86-88).

The remedial testing activity presents test information to the child inan alternative manner, permitting a receptive form of testing. Incontrast, to expressive testing, receptive testing requires the child topoint rather than speak. To perform a receptive-type test, the cards aredisplayed for simultaneous viewing as shown in FIG. 5 (step 86). Thecards 104 are placed front-side up on a flat surface 102, to displaytheir symbols (in this case numbers). The child is then asked toidentify each of the displayed numbers. This is accomplished by simplyasking the child to point to a card displaying a particular number. Forinstance, asking the child to point to the card with the number "5" onit. After asking the child to identify each number, a score is recordedfor the task (step 90).

Referring again to FIG. 3, the child's ability to identify geometricshapes and colors is evaluated after performing the number test (step56). The procedure 80 shown in FIG. 4 for administering expressive and,if necessary, receptive tests can be used to concurrently evaluate bothshape and color-naming skills. This is accomplished by providing asubset of cards where each card displays a different shape having aparticular color, such as the third subset described earlier. As thecards are sequentially displayed (step 82), the testing specialist asksthe child to identify the shape, and then irrespective of the child'sanswer, proceeds to ask the child to identify the shape's color. If thereceptive testing activity (steps 86-88) is necessary, the testingspecialist can likewise assess the child's ability to name shapes andcolors by displaying the cards in the manner shown in FIG. 5 and askingthe child to identify each of the displayed shapes and colors.

In step 58, a letter-naming test is administered to evaluate the child'sknowledge of the alphabet. In the exemplary set of cards described inFIG. 1, four of the five subsets are used in this test (the third subsetis not used because it only displays numbers and shapes). Each card inthe four subsets displays on its front side a particular letter of thealphabet. The test is administered using the procedure 80 shown in FIG.4, with the added caveat that as the cards are being sequentiallydisplayed (step 82), they are separated into their respective subsetsaccording to color (step 60). This conveniently readies the subsets forsubsequent tests without unduly distracting the child. If receptivetesting is required (step 84), the testing specialist performs steps86-90, as described earlier for steps 54-56, using one or more of thefour subsets.

In step 62, letter and word matching tests (visual discrimination tests)are administered to evaluate the child's ability to form simple words.To perform the visual discrimination tests, a subset of the cards, suchas the first or second subsets described earlier, is displayed as shownin FIG. 6. As shown, all but one of the cards 104 in a subset aredisplayed front-side up, revealing their individual letters. One card106 in a subset is placed back-side up to display either a letter or aword composed of the letters displayed by the other cards 104 in thesubset. The child is then asked to select from the front-side up cards104 the letter(s) displayed by the back-side up card 106. The child'sresponses are then scored according to the protocol.

Next, in step 64, the child's ability to count and compare abstractsymbols is tested. To evaluate the child's ability to perform this task,a subset of cards is displayed in sequence to the child. The subset canbe the above-described fifth subset and can comprise a plurality ofcards similar to the fourth card 38 shown in FIG. 2. Each card in thesequence displays one or more abstract symbols, such as a star. Thesymbol can appear in various numbers, sizes or colors. For each card inthe sequence, the child can be asked to identify the number of symbolsappearing thereon. In addition, the child can be asked to identifyvarious characteristics of the symbols by comparing them to one another.For instance, for some cards, the child will be asked to identify thelargest star or the smallest star, stars that appear the same or havethe same color or size, or the order of appearance of the symbol such asfirst, middle or last.

In step 66, the child's ability to distinguish the size of objects isevaluated by comparing stacks or columns appearing on a subset of thecards, such as the above-described fourth subset. An example of such acard is shown in FIG. 2 as the third card 36. Each card in the subsethas a different configuration of columns varying in number and height.The cards are sequentially displayed to the child, and as each card isdisplayed, the child can be asked to identify characteristics bycomparing the stack characteristics derived by comparing the stacks,which is the tallest/biggest or the shortest/smallest, which appearsfirst, which appears last, which one is in the middle.

In step 68, the child's ability to draw a simple geometric shape isevaluated using the expandable sets of cards 14-16. The task of drawingexhibits the child's readiness for learning to write. To evaluate thechild's ability to perform this task, each of the expandable sets 16-18is expanded, in turn, to display before the child the shape appearing oneach card. A piece of paper is then placed before the expanded set. Thechild is then given a writing instrument, such as a pen or pencil, andasked to copy each of the displayed symbols on the paper.

While specific embodiments of the present invention have been shown anddescribed, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that thedisclosed invention may be modified in numerous ways and may assume manyembodiments other than the preferred form specifically set out anddescribed above. Accordingly, it is intended by the appended claims tocover all modifications of the invention which fall within the truespirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus for assessing the skills of anindividual, comprising:a plurality of asymmetrically-shaped cards eachdisplaying on the front side thereof a symbol selected from a groupconsisting of letters and numbers, the cards being organized into aplurality of subsets, each subset being indicated by a respective cardcolor, the subsets including a first subset of cards displaying a firstgroup of letters on the front sides thereof and displaying at least oneletter of the first group on the back side of at least one of the cardsin the first subset, a second subset of cards displaying a second groupof letters on the front sides thereof and displaying at least one wordon the back side of at least one of the cards in the second subset, theword being composed from a plurality of letters in the second group, athird subset of cards displaying various shapes on the back sidesthereof, a fourth subset of cards displaying a plurality of columns onthe back sides thereof, and a fifth subset of cards having a singlerepeated symbol appearing on the backsides thereof in variousquantities, colors and sizes.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, furthercomprising an expandable set of cards.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1,further comprising:instructions for displaying the cards to theindividual in a predetermined manner.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1,further comprising:a protocol including a list of questions to be askedto the individual about the cards.
 5. The apparatus of claim 4, furthercomprising:a scorecard for recording the individual's responses to thequestions.
 6. An apparatus for assessing the skill of an individual,comprising:a plurality of asymmetrically-shaped cards being organizedinto a plurality of subsets, each subset being indicated by a respectivecolor in order to facilitate separating the cards into their respectivesubsets, the subsets including a first subset of cards displaying afirst group of letters on the front sides thereof and displaying atleast one letter of the first group on the back side of at least one ofthe cards in the first subset, and a second subset of cards displaying asecond group of letters on the front sides thereof and displaying atleast one word on the back side of at least one of the cards in thesecond subset, the word including a plurality of letters included in thesecond group.
 7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the plurality ofsubsets further includes a third subset of cards displaying variousshapes on the back sides thereof.
 8. The apparatus of claim 6, whereinthe plurality of subsets further includes a fourth subset of cardsdisplaying a plurality of columns on the back sides thereof.
 9. Theapparatus of claim 6, wherein the plurality of subsets further includesa fifth subset of cards having at least one card displaying a repeatedsymbol.
 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the repeated symbolappears in various sizes.